Helicopter Pilots Visual Search Study Invitation

[Nejc900]

Hi everyone,

My name is Nejc Sedlar, and I am a PhD student at the University of Aberdeen (UK). We are looking for helicopter pilots who are working within either HEMS (Air Ambulance), Military, Offshore Transport, or Search and Rescue (SAR) operations to take part in a 60-minute online interview study on information gathering during landings.
The questions will focus on a number of aspects, including the steps involved in a landing manoeuvre, the information collected prior to arriving at a landing site, and the management of information with the co-pilot inside the cockpit. Additionally, the effect of landings in different locations/contexts will also be explored. The attached document provides further information about the project.

If you wish to take part you can follow on the link to a Doodle poll that is available in the attached document. Through that you can book a specific timeslot that best suits your availability.

Alternatively, you can also contact me through the forum, or email me at [email protected] and we can arrange the most suitable time for the interview.

The project has been reviewed and approved by the University of Aberdeen Psychology Research Ethics Committee. Following the completion of the study, the resultant report and findings will be shared and made available to everyone.

Thank you!

[pba_target]

If you're looking at information gathering on landing sites, it would be worth extending your information management section to include rearcrew - military helicopters extensively use rearcrew to observe and report information on landing sites prior to use.

[Nejc900]

Originally Posted by pba_target

If you're looking at information gathering on landing sites, it would be worth extending your information management section to include rearcrew - military helicopters extensively use rearcrew to observe and report information on landing sites prior to use.

Thanks for your reply. Rear crew play an essential role in information gathering for HEMS, Military and SAR operations, however for the purposes of the present and our future research aims we are only focusing on information gathering from the pilots perspective. This does of course include the communication and teamwork with the rear crew and we are interested in how this works from the pilots perspective.

[212man]

The questions will focus on a number of aspects, including the steps involved in a landing manoeuvre, the information collected prior to arriving at a landing site, and the management of information with the co-pilot inside the cockpit. Additionally, the effect of landings in different locations/contexts will also be explored

Without teaching grandma to suck eggs, I assume you know that the co-pilot can also be the handling pilot and conducts the landing? This can either be as a control exchange due to wind direction and deck orientation, or he could have been acting as the handling pilot throughout the flight, and the captain acting as PM (Pilot Monitoring). Similarly, the co-pilot could be the handling pilot for the flight but hand control to the captain for landing. There will also be very different processes for preparing for visual approaches compared to instrument approaches to an airport in controlled airspace.

[Ascend Charlie]

It starts on pilot course with the Unknown Landing Sites lessons and the WOSSAT, or SWAT, checks.

[Nejc900]

Originally Posted by 212man

Without teaching grandma to suck eggs, I assume you know that the co-pilot can also be the handling pilot and conducts the landing? This can either be as a control exchange due to wind direction and deck orientation, or he could have been acting as the handling pilot throughout the flight, and the captain acting as PM (Pilot Monitoring). Similarly, the co-pilot could be the handling pilot for the flight but hand control to the captain for landing. There will also be very different processes for preparing for visual approaches compared to instrument approaches to an airport in controlled airspace.

Yes absolutely. What I meant by the co-pilot here is just the other pilot within the cockpit that is not you, be it the PF/PM, or Commander/First officer. The impact of both the role you fly as, as well as the type of landing/approaches you conduct is included within the interview as they represent some of the factors that we are most interested in studying.

[albatross]

High Recon (Check Wind) , Low Recon (check of power available) while completing the 5 S check : “Size, Shape, Slope, Surface, Surroundings”
This allows you to decide on approach and departure path, where to land in the confined area ect.
Lots of different names for the procedure but everyone is looking for the same information in order to form a viable plan.

[212man]

Originally Posted by albatross

High Recon (Check Wind) , Low Recon (check of power available) while completing the 5 S check : “Size, Shape, Slope, Surface, Surroundings”
This allows you to decide on approach and departure path, where to land in the confined area ect.
Lots of different names for the procedure but everyone is looking for the same information in order to form a viable plan.

5 Ss coupled with 6 Ps and all should be good!

[[email protected]]

Size, Shape, Surroundings, Surface and Slope - you mostly do the last 2 in the hover as they are often difficult to assess from height. The first 3 allow to to make your plan of 'Can I get in?' followed by 'How will I get in?'

[Nejc900]

Originally Posted by albatross

High Recon (Check Wind) , Low Recon (check of power available) while completing the 5 S check : “Size, Shape, Slope, Surface, Surroundings”
This allows you to decide on approach and departure path, where to land in the confined area ect.
Lots of different names for the procedure but everyone is looking for the same information in order to form a viable plan.

This is one of the aspects that we are interested in, however more specifically we are looking at how all of that information is gathered from your surroundings. What role does visual search play? What are the specific things that are looked at to judge, for example, the 5S's? Are there any other sources of information that are used? What factors might affect the ability to gather information and how is that managed? And a number of other smaller things.

[[email protected]]

Tried to get on this today - scheduled a call, nothing has happened.

[Nejc900]

Originally Posted by [email protected]

Tried to get on this today - scheduled a call, nothing has happened.

I have just sent you an email about this. I'm very sorry for the delayed response.

[[email protected]]

All done Nejc - thanks, it was a very interesting experience, I can't believe I talked for an hour without realising it

[Nejc900]

Originally Posted by [email protected]

All done Nejc - thanks, it was a very interesting experience, I can't believe I talked for an hour without realising it

We appreciate every minute of that! Thank you again for taking part!

[sycamore]

Crab,typical QHI...

[luckyrat]

Having just retired from 47 years of aviation, the last 23 of which was daily multiple landings at unprepared field locations in the Falklands, surely no one does a high recce, low recce, and runs through a list of a made up group of letters before landing, since the day they completed basic training?
If military you will be shot down, as a civil operator you have the time restraints of further tasks. It’s irrelevant who is actually hands on, any good crew have equal input to facilitate an expeditious and safe landing and take off.

[[email protected]]

Crab,typical QHI...

yes, but I managed not to talk bollocks (I think) and didn't use any coloured pens and vector diagrams

[[email protected]]

Luckyrat - you are doing it automatically in your head on final approach generally, the 5'Ss is a good training tool - and there's not a lot of stuff to bump into in the Falklands- if you've been there for 23 years the whole place will be familiar and you will have made your decisions before you take off.

[luckyrat]

Originally Posted by [email protected]

Luckyrat - you are doing it automatically in your head on final approach generally, the 5'Ss is a good training tool - and there's not a lot of stuff to bump into in the Falklands- if you've been there for 23 years the whole place will be familiar and you will have made your decisions before you take off.

No 2 days anywhere in aviation are the same, familiar with the location or not!
My 4 tours of Northern Ireland in the 70’s and 80’s, including flying as a single pilot from the black hangar in Aldergrove proved that!
I’m not knocking the basics, however after landing on the backs of various of Her Majesty’s ships, to quote Tom Cruise……. “If you think you are dead”

[[email protected]]

Anyone who is interested in helping people do research to make helicopter flying safer would do well to take part in this study.